Sleep talking or somniluqoy is actually a type of sleep disorder. Most people think that sleep talking is normal, but what those people do not know is that sleep talking is classified into a parasomnia. Sleep talking may not be harmful to the overall health of a person, but sleep talking can be a symptom to a more serious underlying medical condition. In fact, sleep talking can happen alone or it can happen in conjunction with other sleep disorders. Sleep talking can range from soft mumblings to complex complete strings of sentences that may sometimes be hard to comprehend.

When Does Sleep Talking Occur?

Most of the time, sleep talking occurs during periods after the Rapid Eye Movement Stage of sleep or during the REM stage of sleep. The person who is sleep talking is totally unaware and unconscious of his or her speech. Sleep talking may not only occur during or after the REM stage of sleep, it can even occur during Non Rapid Eye Movement stage of sleep. Sleep talking occurring during the NREM stage of sleep is considered to be “motor breakthrough”. It is referred to as a motor breakthrough because the person’s talk during sleep is actually a dream speech, which words spoken aloud are from the person’s dream.

Sleep Talking and another Sleep Disorder

Sleep talking occurs alone, but is usually associated with another sleep disorder. One of the most common sleep disorder that is associated with sleep talking is the Sleep Related Eating Disorder or SRED. Other sleep disorders that can be associated or related with sleep talking are Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder or RBD, and Sleepwalking. In the case wherein sleep talking is associated with Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder, sleep talking can be disruptive and usually be obscene.

Is Sleep Talking Harmful?

Most of the cases of sleep talking, it do not require any treatment. Sleep talking is usually considered to be harmless and it can even occur randomly in people from all age groups. Sleep talking is more common to occur in younger children. In fact, sleep talking is so common in younger children that approximately 50% of all the children population are suffering from sleep talking. However, parents should not be alarmed of their children sleep talking, for most of the cases of sleep talking in children, sleep talking tends to disappear after puberty.